RIVERSIDE: RCC corps wins drum line competition

The Riverside City College Marching Tigers' drum line performs “Guardians of the Breath” during the recent Winter Guard International championships in Dayton, Ohio. The victory was just the latest for an ensemble that has won every competition it has entered in the past season.

Riverside City College marching band director Gary Locke was confident. Going into Saturday’s final competition at the University of Dayton arena in Dayton, Ohio, Locke knew that his drum line would do well.

“This show was so good,” Locke said. “We were going to win.”

And they did.

For the fifth time in the 14 years it has been participating, the Marching Tigers’ drum line captured first place in the Winter Guard International Championships. The competition attracts mostly independent organizations from across the country. Pulse Percussion, a group from Westminster, was the only other team from California to finish in the top 10, placing third.

RCC’s win probably didn’t surprise many. The team arrived at the championships having won every competition it entered in the past season. But it also hit a record of 98.563, the highest score a team has ever received. That was about 1.6 points higher than second-place finisher Rhythm X of Columbus, Ohio. Less than a single point separated Rhythm X from the next two finishers.

Locke said the record score made the win more satisfying.

“It is validating what we do, how we do it and why we do it,” Locke said. “When you get the right result, it’s super rewarding.”

The director, who also has won numerous awards with the school’s marching band, was speaking by phone from Indianapolis, where he was preparing for the national flag dance competition. Like the drum corps, the flag team has won five championships over the years, he said.

RCC’s marching band has many older members. But participants in the drum line have to be enrolled at RCC and can’t be older than 22. Locke has little trouble attracting good players.

This year, he said, “We had 118 to audition, and we took 41. We had a choice of some really strong performers. Of those 41, we had a member from Japan, we had one from Massachusetts, one from Oregon, a couple from Arizona and one from Minnesota.”

Sacrifice, he said, is an essential part of the program

“For a kid who’s always dreamed of being in it and now they’re a member, it’s a big responsibility,” Locke said. “They have to show up. They have to be reliable. They have to change their social schedule, their work schedule, their school schedule, their eating schedule. We’re teaching them the RCC way, which is work hard, support each other – and in the end it’s very rewarding.”

The competition is as much theater as it is drum playing, with vibrant costumes and routines that have the flash of Broadway productions. Choreography and set designs are months in the making.

RCC’s piece was called “Guardians of the Breath” and was an ecologically themed performance incorporating metal shaped like bare trees.

“The idea is, ecologically, the way we’re treating the planet, we’re killing the guardians of the breath,” Locke said. Onstage, he said, “It looks as if (a cluster of the trees) is almost one tree in the beginning. It’s taken apart, like seeds being planted, almost. There is the ultimate catastrophe where the trees are all felled. But it ends with the hope of renewing it. We end up a new small young tree.”

He said the trees alone cost between $7,000 and $8,000. Students in the corps have to contribute $1,600 for travel and costume costs.

Because of RCC’s reputation, Locke said, may of the instruments are provided by sponsors such as Pearl drums and ProMark drumsticks.

Months of planning go into the performance. Specialists tackle individual aspects of the program. And they start early.

As two of the team’s coaches embraced Saturday evening after the win, Locke said, one said to the other, “‘We start working on next year tomorrow.’ Actually Sunday or Monday everybody is either flying or driving home and they will say, ‘You know, I’ve got this idea ... .’”

Clips of this year’s competition, including RCC’s drum line piece, can be seen at marchingbuzz.com.

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